I hadn't sensed a thing until I was stabbed. He'd gotten this close, right up against me, and I hadn't heard a single footstep. There was no explaining it except a power or an artifact.
A power for concealing oneself... it felt familiar somehow.
Right, stealth.
When it came to stealth, one person came to mind. Before my regression, there'd been a member of the organization who went into the same dungeon where Choi Haegang got me.
It's Cap!
At last I figured out what had felt off about the kid in front of me.
“So the master of stealth was right here.”
“Let go!”
I gripped down hard to keep hold of the struggling kid. With his movement pinned, the kid tried to kick at my crotch, but I don't fall for the same trick twice.
“Atlas is more open-minded than I thought. Dragging a little kid like this into a dungeon.”
“Why, here...”
Seeing the kid, Choi Haegang frowned, baffled. So this hadn't been a plan to lull me into a false sense of security and strike from behind after all.
Coming face to face with Choi Haegang, the kid puffed up with fury, fists clenched.
“You said you'd kill him!”
Compared to back when he wore that ball cap everywhere, this was a wildly intense display of emotion.
“You promised you'd kill the villain who killed my dad...”
The kid muttered something more, but the tearful words couldn't quite reach their end.
Ahh.
I recalled the incident from a little while back.
The Boss did kill the man in that house.
It hadn't really clicked before, but apparently that had been Cap's father. Judging by how furious he was, thrashing like this, Cap must have seen the corpse in the living room.
No wonder something had seemed off. He'd pretended to fall from the railing while hiding himself with his power, hadn't he.
Anyway, how on earth did he run into Choi Haegang?
It was an unbelievable coincidence.
The kid trembled, glaring at Choi Haegang. It seemed he'd earned himself some serious resentment.
“I can't trust anyone now. I'll... I'll take my revenge myself.”
Revenge, huh, he'd picked up a nasty habit. Maybe under Choi Haegang's influence.
Choi Haegang massaged his temple like he had a splitting headache.
“This isn't a place for you to be.”
“Shut up, you liar!”
“Why did you hide that you're an awakened?”
At the cold reproach, the kid clammed up. A boy grinding his teeth in betrayal, and Choi Haegang squeezing his eyes shut as he choked down his anger. A fantastic pairing.
I stepped in to defuse the mood.
“Now, now. Don't be too hard on him. Fooling two awakeneds at his age, isn't that a truly remarkable talent?”
“...”
“Hm?”
Choi Haegang shot me a sidelong glare. You're the bigger problem here. That's what it seemed to say.
“Hahh...”
As if resigning himself, he stepped in front of me. He held out a hand, as if to say hand the kid over.
“Give him here. He's not a guild member, just a child the guild is looking after for the time being.”
“Mm.”
I looked down at Cap, pretending to mull it over. The kid was glowering at Choi Haegang, eyes full of wariness.
“No, I'll keep hold of him.”
Lifting my gaze, I flashed a bright smile.
“I love kids.”
I was curious whether Choi Haegang would still swing that sword around freely with a child right beside me. Catching on that I was using the kid as a shield, Choi Haegang dropped his voice low.
“I could just kill both of you right here.”
“!”
The kid flinched. I loosened my grip on him slightly, but he'd already lost all trust in me, so he didn't bolt toward Choi Haegang either. Instead, he took a step back and clutched the necklace at his throat tight.
“Don't say such frightening things. I'm not the kind of reckless man who'd lay a hand on a child, you know.”
Grinning ear to ear, I stroked the frightened kid's head.
“Once we're out, I'll properly turn myself in to the police.”
At that, the rigid kid's eyes snapped up. Then he smacked my hand off the top of his head.
“Shut up, you murderer! I'll kill you before you ever turn yourself in!”
The kid stamped his feet and threw a fit.
This kid's got a wild temper.
No wonder he'd rebelled against the Boss alongside me. He'd shown remarkable promise from a young age.
As I watched him fondly, the kid, unable to contain his rage, shoved me. His wildly swinging arm caught the knife buried in my stomach and yanked it out.
“Ugh.”
Blood spattered onto the floor. At the pained groan, the kid flinched and stumbled back. He'd talked about killing me, but maybe he hadn't had the resolve for it. The wound felt shallow, too.
Only now noticing I'd been hurt, Choi Haegang sighed and came over.
“Lie down.”
He dug through his bag and pulled out a roll of bandages.
“You're going to be hated by that kid even more, you know.”
When I jerked my chin at the kid, Choi Haegang clicked his tongue.
“I have no intention of turning a child like that into a murderer.”
“Haha.”
“Anyway, hurry and-”
He couldn't finish. A tremor strong enough to shake the entire waterway rolled through.
“Th-there!”
The kid pointed at one end of the waterway. We turned our heads at the same time.
At first it looked like dust.
After ten-odd seconds passed, we could make out what it really was, a swarm of monsters charging toward us.
Thunder, thunder, thunder!
Had they sensed their comrade's death? Crocodiles were surging in from the distance. Enough of them to be called a legion.
Not a number you could handle all at once.
Deciding retreat was the better option, Choi Haegang quickly jammed the key into the padlock. With a creak, the iron gate swung open.
“This way.”
“Gh!”
I tried to dart ahead in the direction Choi Haegang pointed, but I tripped over something and went down. Looking back, there was a foot stuck out at a deliberate angle.
The kid saw me sprawled on the ground and stuck his tongue out at me.
This little punk.
I grabbed the hem of the kid's pants, playing it off as an accident.
“Agh!”
The kid, about to run off, fell.
“...”
I met his glare with a smile. Choi Haegang's face crumpled into a scowl.
“What do you think you're doing!”
He came over, exasperated. He took the kid's arm and pulled him to his feet. I scrambled up too.
How long had we been fleeing the crocodile horde?
Splat!
Choi Haegang killed the fourth gatekeeper. But this time we couldn't move forward. Monsters had appeared on the far side of the iron bars too.
Now there were crocodiles slowly closing the distance ahead of us, and crocodiles snarling at us through the bars behind. Surrounded on both sides. Nowhere left to run.
I was scanning the area for somewhere I alone could slip away to when I met Choi Haegang's eyes.
“What's your plan?”
“We fight.”
That really was the only option. Choi Haegang had drawn his sword early. He leveled the gleaming blade at the crocodile horde ahead.
I quietly edged backward.
Hyung'll take the rear. You've got this.
Thud. My back bumped into someone. I turned to find Cap there. The composure he'd had while tripping me was long gone, replaced by a face full of terror.
“Scared?”
“!”
The kid jolted and looked up at me.
He was always a coward, even back then.
Thinking the idle thought, I reached out toward a crocodile barreling in from the front.
Crackle!
Watching the crocodile collapse with a wet thud, the kid recoiled in horror. As his small body shrank away, I grabbed it, and he shrieked like he was having a fit.
“M-murderer...!”
“They're not people, they're monsters.”
“...”
Eyes full of hatred glared at me. Choi Haegang's over there slicing through three or four at a time, so why is it only me you do this to?
Bipedal, armed, even living in packs... at this rate they basically count as human.
I warned the kid.
“Stay glued to my side. Unless you want to die.”
No answer came, but I figured he'd more or less gotten the message. I turned my attention back to the front.
Crack!
Individually, each monster was fairly weak.
With the front left to Choi Haegang, I just had to lazily pick off the ones slipping toward the rear, so there really wasn't much for me to do.
“...Phew.”
More breathing room than I'd expected.
Seizing the gap while Choi Haegang fought hard, I quietly folded my arms. Since I had time to kill, I figured I'd watch the hunter swing his sword.
Smooth.
I was thinking some idle thought when-
“Khh.”
Suddenly my body pitched forward. At the same time, a searing pain flared in my back.
The attack had come from where I'd least expected. Had the bars opened? My alarm was short-lived, because just as I went to use my power, a young voice reached my ear.
“Die...!”
I twisted around at once to check who it was.
Standing there with a spear wasn't a crocodile, it was Cap. He'd apparently pulled the weapon from a dead crocodile's grip. Stepping back, I noticed the hand of the crocodile I'd just killed was empty.
Once the situation clicked, blood rushed to my head.
This son of a-
I'd gone and wasted my power again for nothing. As I scowled, Cap, meeting my eyes, twisted the corners of his mouth up.
“I'm finished anyway. Rather than die like this...”
The kid pushed the spear deeper, putting his weight into it. The hands gripping the shaft were trembling.
The deranged little brat was hell-bent on dragging me down with him.
But I had no intention of dying here. I was going to bring home a useful slave and earn some praise from the Boss.
Creeeak.
Behind the kid, the iron gate swung open. A crocodile slipped through the gap.
“You killed my dad with that power too, didn't you?”
The kid, fixated only on me, didn't seem to hear the sound. The crocodile crept closer, breath held. I drew a knife from my sleeve.
“...Let go of it, yeah?”
Eyes going wide at the knife, the kid gritted his teeth.
“I'm never letting go. I'm going to- gah!”
The instant I raised my hand, Cap, who'd been glaring so boldly, squeezed his eyes shut. He thought I was about to attack him and chickened out.
I gave the knife a single spin in my hand and tossed it lightly.
“Kueeegh...!”
Thud!
The crocodile that had been creeping up behind the kid crumpled limply.
At the sound of something heavy collapsing, Cap slowly lifted his eyelids. When the kid checked behind him, his eyes went round.
“...!”
Seeing their ambush had failed, the crocodiles on the far side of the bars lunged at us. There was no time to talk him around.
I roughly tore the spear out of my back and yanked the kid into my arms. Dodging the attacks flying in from every side, I lost my balance and went down.
Maybe because my back muscles had torn, no strength would come to my right shoulder. On top of that, my left arm was wrapped around the kid.
Whoosh!
In the end, I rolled my body fast to evade the attack.
“Let gooo!”
“Ugh, hold, still!”
Grappling with a brat who wanted to die together, I somehow ended up tumbling over and over with the kid clutched to my chest.
By the time I thought I'd better stop, the water's surface was right in front of me.
Splash!
Cold water enveloped my whole body. I sank for a moment, then gathered myself and started swimming. The water was deeper than I'd expected, my feet couldn't reach the bottom.
To make it worse, the brat thrashed wildly, like sinking was his dearest wish. Holding onto him while injured was absolute hell. I half-wished he'd just gulp down a bunch of water and pass out.
Splash!
“Pwah!”
“Cough, cough.”
I barely managed to get my head above water. Cap seemed to have run out of strength, going limp after a fit of coughing.
Now I can finally breathe.
Splash! Splash!
A few of the crocodiles came plunging into the water after us.
And I can't even use my power.
My own power didn't affect me, so that was fine, but if I let loose electricity, the kid in the water with me would die for certain. While I was deliberating, a crocodile had already closed in. Right in front of us, a long snout twitched.
Sniff, sniff.
All my tensing turned out to be for nothing, the crocodile turned the other way. The rest of them circled, puzzled by the smell of blood, but passed us by without noticing.
...Aha.
Looking at the kid in my arms, eyes squeezed shut, I understood the situation.
Said he couldn't control his power, but he sure manages to use it perfectly whenever it works against me.
After we'd floated there for a while, the kid spoke up, his voice confused.
“Why did you...”
“...”
He seemed to mutter something, but I didn't answer.
This brat stuck a blade in me twice.
You and I are settling this once we're out.
While the kid and I lay low in the water, the crocodiles fell one by one to Choi Haegang's blade. After the last remaining crocodile was cut down, I led the kid out and we scrambled hurriedly onto dry ground.
I thought I'd die of cold.
“Phew, that was close. Are you hurt anywhere?”
It was the kind of situation where it wouldn't have been strange for him to black out from hypothermia, but luckily Cap looked fine.
“Why, why...”
Back on his own two feet, the kid was shivering. Probably from the cold.
I licked my lips, ready to deliver the line I'd prepared.
“Once we're out of here,”
“Why did you save me!”
“...What?”
